My daughter and I have two, full, empty weeks between summer camp and preschool to spend some good, quality time together. What that means is I need an arsenal of “projects” – as my daughter calls them – to pass the time.
Side Note: She doesn’t ever say, “Mom, I’m bored.” or “Mom, what are we going to do today?” She says, “Mom, what projects are we doing.” or “Mom, let’s do a project.” I’m not sure she got that from me. I think she got it from preschool.
When I was little my grandfather used to feed the birds in our backyard. In the winter, he’d even get suet from his butcher shop to feed them. So, the idea of creating a bird feeder seemed like a good one.
Now, I am not handy with wood so I’m not talking about a real bird feeder, I’m talking about seriously, homemade bird feeders.
Here’s what we did:
1. Went on a nature hunt for pine cones.
This was fun. She had a great time finding them and collecting them (all 17 of them).
2. Tied yarn to onto the pine cones.
She cut the yarn and I tied it on each pine cone.
Side note: At first, she preferred pushing pieces of a stick and pieces of yarn through the slats of the deck. *Sigh*
3. Spread peanut butter on the pine cones.
This was messy. My son got involved during this step. It was a good time to remind myself to let Leah do things herself. She was able to spread the peanut butter really well. It was only on one side but who cares, right?
4. Roll the peanut butter pine cones in a plate of crushed walnuts.
Messy, again. But easy and fun.
5. Hang the pine cones on trees.
I handled this. I’d hang two while they worked on the next two. It took a while.
Fun, right? A cool, (pretty much) free project. I think it would be great to do in the winter too. More pine cones available, better to feed the birds when there is less food around, and we used red ribbon, which would look really cute in the trees around Christmas time.
All, good. Then why did I call it “bird” feeder (with the quotes)? Because I don’t think we fed one bird. Here’s what happened:
Squirrels!
These squirrels were so brazen. I was barely able to take the pictures of the completed pine cones before they were munching away. By the end of the day, they’d completely stolen a few of the pine combs and they’d eaten the peanut butter from the rest of them! C-R-A-Z-Y!
Either way, it was a fun project. Have you tried this?
Or will you? Let me know!
l
Happy Family Travels 